OCTOBER 3, 2026 07:48
Updated:OCTOBER 3, 2026 07:51
We know that being near someone we love can make us feel good. A new study discovers why: it helps the body work better
Researchers have previously shown that people who live together or share the same workplace often adopt similar sleep-wake schedules, light exposure, and screen-time habits. Roommates, close couples, or tight-knit office teams often experience stress spikes, anxiety, or low moods simultaneously during major shared events
If one person yawns in a room full of close friends or family members, several others will often yawn shortly after. Even dogs, which are pack animals, do this. It’s an involuntary neurological response tied to empathic connections and mirrors neuron activity in the brain. And people living in the same home often report having similar meal schedules, eating identical foods, and even experiencing synchronized bathroom habits.
Now, researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI) and Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer have found another physiological connection – blood glucose after a meal is lower when eating in companionship, compared with when eating alone. After the same standardized carbohydrate meal, participants had smaller glucose spikes and quicker glucose recovery in the social condition
They published it in the prestigious journal Science Advances under the title “Social Physiology: Human homeostasis is more efficient in social proximity.” The research was led by HUJI Prof. Shir Atzil and her PhD student Monia Masalha, with Dr. Shai Fuchs from Sheba. They and six students in her lab worked on the project for three years
They call this principle “social physiology”: the human body regulates itself more efficiently in the presence of social partners. “We used to think of the body as an isolated system that regulates itself,” Atzil told The Jerusalem Post.
“Our findings show that human physiology is inherently social. Being close to someone you love lowers the physical energy your body spends on regulating itself. This gives us a direct metabolic benefit to being together and reveals a core evolutionary reason why humans form bonds in the first place: our bodies run better together.”
In their article, they noted: “This discovery has two key implications; the first concerns evolution. Although attachment theory and social neuroscience have provided valuable insights into how close relationships are formed and maintained, they don’t resolve a central paradox
“Why are social animals motivated to invest considerable cognitive and physical effort, and accept risks of competition, conflict, and aggression to engage in social interactions?… Addressing this discrepancy requires identifying immediate gains that make social interaction worthwhile in the moment yet can also accumulate into long-term fitness benefits.”
Atzil asserted that “what we discovered was not known at all. Nobody else has studied it.”
The experiment consisted of a standardized carbohydrate-meal test, in which participants consumed 50 grams of carbohydrates contained in 102 gr. of a standardized white-wheat bread. Their glucose levels after eating were sampled over 120 minutes
The effect even extended beyond blood sugar. Social proximity also improved temperature regulation during cold exposure and reduced stress responses in adults and infants. The benefits appeared even without physical touch and were not explained by reduced stress. Across preregistered experiments, the evidence suggests that social physiology is a domain-general principle of human physiology
At a time when blood sugar regulation is a growing global health concern, the findings suggest that metabolic health may be shaped not only by what is on the plate, but also by who is at the table
“Blood sugar regulation is not just about what we eat, but who we eat with,” says Atzil. “Our relationships have an active biological role in our physical wellbeing.”
The research, which was supported by a European Research Council Starting Grant awarded to Atzil, offers a new way to understand human connection. Relationships may not only support our emotional lives; they may help regulate the body’s most basic systems
The researchers emphasized that social closeness is not a substitute for medical care, nutrition, or exercise. But the study points to a powerful and overlooked factor in health: the people beside us
Atzil is director of HUJI’s Bonding Neuroscience Laboratory, where she focuses on the neural and behavioral mechanisms that form and sustain close human bonds. She earned her bachelor’s degree in biology and master’s degree in psychobiology from Tel Aviv University, followed by a doctorate at Bar-Ilan University and postdoctoral work in neuroscience at Harvard University
With this multidisciplinary expertise and extensive experience working with parents, infants, and romantic partners, she developed a novel theoretical framework to understand the neural and behavioral processes that underpin intimate human bonds and their developmental consequences
“For the experiments, we used a room in our lab that looks like a living room. They were all connected to electrodes. They didn’t have to sit together at a table. We let them do whatever they wanted,” recalled Atzil. “I thought touch would be a strong indicator, but it wasn’t.”
The average change in the glucose level was 23%. “Overall, it was a significant effect, but there was a huge variation. Some had a big benefit, while others had much less. I can’t say now what caused the differences,” she continued
“There were no differences between men and women. We controlled for age, gender, body-mass index, metabolic health, how much they touched, stress levels, and more. We looked for strongest-connection partners and mothers and children
“The study is preliminary, and there is a lot more to learn. Our next step will be to study siblings and strangers.”
Asked what she thought was actually causing the improved glucose level, Atzil suggested: “I think it’s the brain, whose most important job is to keep the body up and running. A baby is dependent on caregivers and can’t eat by themselves
“Gradually, as they grow older, their brains develop with close human bonds. It doesn’t even have to be its parents. Anybody who takes care of an infant with sensitivity and a positive input affects the baby, who learns to regulate its body through social interaction.”
The team hasn’t tested glucose levels of diabetics or those who have pre-diabetes, but Atzil said that “this is the obvious direction of our research. Asked if the findings have implications for older adults who eat alone, hospital patients, people living alone, or people in nursing homes, she commented that “it could be if social physiology has a real effect. It should be studied.”
“We still have a lot of questions, but its significance among our participants makes us believe the effect. We still have to characterize it much more to discover how generalizable it is.”
